What is dbm?

DBM (DataBase Management) is shorthand for a ubiquitous set of libraries developed by AT&T Labs to provide developers a persistent key-value store format for data storage and retrieval. DBM refers to a type of database that organizes data as key-value pairs. Keys are unique identifiers that can be used to quickly access or modify the corresponding value. DBM allows application developers to store and retrieve data in a flat file format without the need for a fully-fledged database server.

DBM is widely used by developers because it is simple, efficient and fast. It is also popular in Unix- and Linux-based operating systems because it is integrated into many of those systems. DBM files are commonly stored in plain files with a .db extension. The most common examples of DBM files are NDBM, GDBM, and Berkeley DB. DBM files are widely used in computer software, particularly in web development and programming.